The North Beach School Board met in a special session last week to unanimously approve the hiring of one additional teacher to help alleviate overcrowded fifth grade classrooms at Ocean Shores Elementary School.

While the school district student population as a whole is declining this year, there have been a total of 72 fifth graders in the two classes at Ocean Shores Elementary — a situation that caused teachers, aides and parents to appeal to the board for some relief.

The board called a special meeting for Jan. 23 and the four members in attendance agreed to add the additional full-time teacher after a recommendation by Supt. Deborah Holcomb.

Holcomb noted the budget process for teach staff is set each June, and that the new allocation for funds will have to be accounted for in the spring under a budget extension. It is estimated it will add about $80,000 with salary and benefits to the spending side of the budget.

“This potentially could add more to a typical budget extension,” she said, adding that it may not be needed “if we forecast well.”

Board member Linda Poplin wanted to know how long the added position would be for, and Holcomb said it would be for this year only.

It is still to be determined how the classrooms will be divided, with transitions planned for the new teacher to sit in with the existing classes before the full change is made, Holcomb explained.

The district already has been advertising for a teacher, but it was just for a half-time position. The job will now be advertised and offered as a full-time position.

Interviews also already have been done, and the candidates were asked about their interest in the full-time job, Holcomb said.

“They’ve gone through the process, so once reference checks are done, it should be pretty quick,” she added.

The new class will likely have both fifth and sixth graders. The plan is to have about 24 students in each of the classes. “We may become creative in how we set it up,” said principal Rhonda Ham. “We will take several things into considerations.”

Longtime schools supporter and teacher Joann Sutter had only two words in the public comment portion of the special meeting: “Thank you!”

A parent, Cindy Wilkerson, who said she has five students in the district also questioned if the board was going to look into staffing issues at the junior and senior high school, contending she knew of teachers who were planning not to return after the current school year is over.

“I definitely know this high school/junior high has some desperate needs right now for staffing and structure,” she said.

Board member Doreen Cato said she thought the concerns were valid and promised to ask those same questions going into budgetary discussions for the coming year.